Adventures in Self-Publishing, Chap. 8: Designing the Interior of your Book

Odds are also good that this isn't something that has engaged you yet at all. If so, that’s a shame, because how well the interior of your book is designed will have a major impact on what people think of your work when they read it. If it looks professional, you'll look professional. But if it looks like your local library newsletter, then readers aren't likely to take your work seriously, because it will look so, well, "self published."

And indeed, I’ve been amazed at how terrible some self-published books look. One of the guides I bought, which is something of a bible on self-publishing and has gone through many editions over the past 20 years, truly looks like hell. Another, which includes hundreds of helpful – and long – Web links wasn't coded with live links. Since you can't cut and paste from most eBooks, that meant that I had to retype those long links, or come up with a Google search that would allow me to navigate to the same page. Sigh.

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